Health Resources and Services Administration
SUPPORTING STATEMENT
Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Telehealth.HHS.gov
A. Justification
1. Circumstances of Information Collection
This is a request for OMB approval of a qualitative voluntary customer satisfaction survey or focus group under HRSA’s generic clearance.
This is a request for OMB approval of qualitative voluntary customer satisfaction surveys under HRSA’s generic clearance. HRSA’s Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) will obtain feedback from users of Telehealth.HHS.gov that was recently funded through the CARES Act (P.L. 116-136, P.L. 88-426, 5 U.S.C. 101, 42 U.S.C. Section 210), as amended. Telehealth.HHS.gov received $64.5 million in funding and seeks to provide a unified, trustworthy landing place for telehealth, to expedite awareness and adoption of remote health care options for patients and providers during national emergencies.
Executive Order 12862 directs agencies that "provide significant services directly to the public" to "survey customers to determine the kind and quality of services they want and their level of satisfaction with existing services". The objective of surveying the users of Telehealth.HHS.gov is to provide insight regarding opinions, experiences, and perceptions of Telehealth.HHS.gov, including appropriateness, accuracy, and gaps in information. The information collected will help ensure that users have an effective, efficient, and satisfying experience with Telehealth.HHS.gov.
2. Purpose and Use of the Information
The expected impact of telehealth on providers and patients over the coming years led the Administration to invest $64.5 million from the CARES Act on Telehealth.HHS.gov. Traditional brick and mortar medical facilities do not scale during national emergencies such as the COVID-19 global pandemic. When people seek in-person medical care, they increase the risk of exposure for themselves, other patients, and health care providers. Despite historic efforts by the U.S. Government to make telehealth a more accessible, viable option, providers and patients lack a central resource that provides up-to-date guidance on how to take advantage of the latest changes. To address this challenge, Telehealth.HHS.gov was built. Telehealth.HHS.gov aims to provide a unified, trustworthy landing place for telehealth, to expedite awareness and adoption of remote health care options during national emergencies.
The primary use for information gathered through the surveys is to gather insight regarding opinions, experiences, and perceptions of Telehealth.HHS.gov, including appropriateness, accuracy, and gaps in information. HRSA will only use the information gathered for internal purposes to get a better understanding of users on Telehealth.HHS.gov.
Survey respondents will be users of Telehealth.HHS.gov and include providers, patients, and the general public. The surveys will include questions regarding page/site usefulness, desired content, recommended improvements, and any general feedback. Copies of the survey instrument are attached.
Participation in the surveys is voluntary and information provided will only be shared internally with HRSA and website contractors. The information provided from the surveys will be important feedback regarding our customers’ satisfaction and suggestions for improvement of Telehealth.HHS.gov. If the data is not collected HRSA will not be informed of Telehealth.HHS.gov users’ opinions, experiences, and perceptions of the website and will lack the information needed to ensure that users have an effective, efficient, and satisfying experience with Telehealth.HHS.gov.
3. Use of Improved Information Technology
The surveys will employ information technology for collection as this is the most appropriate methodology to obtain feedback from respondents. All of the respondents will complete the surveys and submit responses electronically. The surveys will only collect the minimum information necessary for the purposes of the project.
4. Efforts to Avoid Duplication
The surveys are designed to collect information specific to Telehealth.HHS.gov. Surveys have been reviewed carefully. The proposed surveys are unique to this activity and information is not duplicated elsewhere.
5. Involvement of Small Entities
The surveys will not have a significant impact on small businesses or other small entities. The information being requested has been held to the absolute minimum required for the intended use of the data.
6. Consequences if Information Collected Less Frequently
The surveys will be collected on a voluntary, ongoing basis. If the information is collected less frequently HRSA will not be informed of Telehealth.HHS.gov users’ opinions, experiences, and
perceptions of the website and will lack the information needed to create content that is appropriate and accurate. There are no legal obstacles to reduce the burden.
7. Consistency With the Guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2)
These surveys will be implemented in a manner fully consistent with 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2).
8. Consultation Outside the Agency
In accordance with 5 CFR 1320.8(d), on December 15, 2020, a 60 day notice was published in the Federal Register for HRSA’s generic clearance, OMB Control No. 0915-0212 (Vol. 85, No.241, pages 81210). No public comments were received.
9. Remuneration of Respondents
Not applicable.
10. Assurance of Confidentiality
To date, the HRSA customer satisfaction surveys have not collected personally identifiable information from respondents. This collection of information will not collect personally identifiable information from respondents and will fully comply with all aspects of the Privacy Act. Participation is voluntary and responses are anonymous. Data will be kept private to the extent allowed by law.
11. Questions of a Sensitive Nature
The surveys do not contain questions of a sensitive nature. Race and ethnicity will not be collected as part of this survey. The collection of race and ethnicity would be too burdensome as they do not relate to the purposes of this project.
12. Estimates of Annualized Hour Burden
Respondents:
All survey respondents will be users of Telehealth.HHS.gov. The page-level survey will be available on every content page of Telehealth.HHS.gov. The site-wide survey will be available for all users on Telehealth.HHS.gov. Providing feedback is voluntary.
Type of Collection |
Number of Respondents |
Responses per Respondent |
Total Responses |
Hours per Respondent |
Total Burden Hours |
Wage Rate |
Total Hour Cost |
Telehealth.HHS.gov Page-Level Website Survey |
16,930 |
1 |
16,930 |
.00556 |
94.1 |
$25.91 |
$2,438 |
Telehealth.HHS.gov Site-Level Website Survey |
535 |
1 |
535 |
.00833 |
4.5 |
$25.91 |
$ 117 |
Total |
17,465 |
-- |
17,465 |
-- |
98.6 |
-- |
$2,555 |
The total respondent burden for the surveys is estimated to be 98.6 hours. We expect a total of 17,465 respondents.
Planned frequency of information collection:
The surveys are ongoing.
13. Estimates of Annualized Cost Burden to Respondents
The only associated cost to respondents is their time to provide the requested information.
14. Estimates of Annualized Cost to the Government
The surveys will be conducted electronically with survey results evaluated by the website contractor. The estimated cost for evaluation is $4,263 which includes 5% from a Research Analyst ($85,260). The estimated cost for the hosting of the survey is $189,000.
The estimated annual cost of the project is $193,263. The estimated total cost of the project is $966,315 over a 5-year period.
15. Change in Burden
Not Applicable. This is a new activity under HRSA’s generic clearance and will be included in the total burden currently approved by OMB under OMB Control No. 0915-0212.
16. Plans for Analysis and Timetable of Key Activities
The surveys will be collected over a period of 5 years. The website contractor will compile and evaluate survey results. Narrative information from the surveys will be summarized and examined using descriptive analysis. Findings will only be used for internal service improvement and will not be generalized to the public. There are no plans for publication of any survey results.
17. Exemption for Display of Expiration Date
No exemption is being requested. The expiration date will be displayed.
18. Certifications
This information collection activity will comply with the requirements in 5 CFR 1320.9.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Elyana N. Bowman |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2023-08-27 |